





PROBLEMS OF CHARACTER TRAINING 
OR 
A DEFENSE OF YOUTH 


SPEECH DELIVERED BY 
Mrs. SuSAN M. DORSEY, SUPERINTENDENT 
Los ANGELES CITY SCHOOLS 
BEFORE THE SUPERINTENDENTS’ CONVENTION 
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 
OCTOBER 15, 1925 











Problems of Character Training 
or 
A Defense of Youth 


I shall choose to word my subject “The Problem of Character 
Training.” 


Is this problem more pressing than formerly? If so, why; and, 
if it is more pressing, what is the responsibility of educators and how 
shall they meet that responsibility? 


To the first query, the answer must undoubtedly be that America 
has never known an hour in all her history when deflections from 
rectitude, positive immorality and, more especially, criminal activi- 
ties among youth were so prevalent. I hasten, however, to add that 
never were the youth of America more frank and more capable of 
right living and thinking than today; or, to state the matter in 
another form; had the youth of other generations been subjected 
to the physical strain and stimulation, to the same pleasure urge and 
luxury craze; had they lived in a period so devoid of the sense of 
spiritual values, so besotted with greed-for~material possessions and 
so swollen with pride of display, there is no reason to believe that 
those youth of other days would have stood the test so well as the 
magnificent boyhood and girlhood of today. The fault, my friends, 
is not—with-the youth- of.-our. generation; the fault is + with the times. 
They are sadly “out of joint.” 


Which leads me to the second query; if youth today are too ir- 
responsible and pleasure-loving, too indifferent to obligation and 
duty, why is this the case? Compare just briefly our world with 
that of thirty-five years ago, the generation in which the mature men 
and women of our time were boys and girls. That was an America 
which had no automobiles, no motion pictures, no wireless telegraph, 
no radio, no aeroplanes, few telephones, few electrical appliances, 
even of the electric light variety, few of the mad mechanical contri- 
vances that shoot human beings through space and none of the 
frenzied, bumping variety so popular today. 


There were few beauty parlors in those days and the ones then 
operated were patronized by those who sought relaxation and rest, 
quite as much as artificial beautification. The eight hour law for 
men was restricted to a few favored occupations and was practically. 
unheard of for women; consequently, there was little leisure in that 
America for any save those of the rich who chose to be idle and those 
of the poor who chose to be hoboes. There was no woman’s suffrage; 
the occupations open to women were restricted and women’s clubs 
were just developing; consequently, women were more occupied with 


affairs of the home than is the case today. 


Music was still in love with melody and visual art still strove 
to express that spiritual beauty that ‘never was on land or sea.” 
While striving for this visualization of beauty, art, I grant you, 
sometimes lapsed into mistiness and even obscurity, but at least we 
were not hit in the face by unsoftened angles and blocked-out masses 
of ugliness. Literature in the novel, drama, essay and poem was not 


3 


#4 bO0OU6 


devoted to sex exploitation; it still showed, as real art always does, 
the reserve of wisdom and the good taste to select its varied themes 
from the whole range of human emotions. 


In the realm of the courts there was no probation for offenders 
and the criminal lawyer had not yet attained his distinctive differ- 
entiation as one whose function it is so to befog the issue as to secure 
release of the criminal or mitigation of his just penalty. 


The doctrine of heredity had just received fresh emphasis from a 
galaxy of brilliant writers, but its fearful warnings were interpreted 
after-a fashion to deter the wrongdoer for the sake of his offspring— 
not, as of late, to condone and excuse the offense of the evildoer as 
an inevitable consequence of erring ancestry. The necessity of right 
environment as an aid in the development of worthy character was be- 
ginning to receive its rightful emphasis. It was not, however, ac- 
cepted as a rectifier of all moral defects, for men still believed that 
the inner urge to righteousness might be powerful enough to over- 
come even very adverse environment. 


For the most part, it was a clean-hearted America, troubled 
greatly about the saloon and the liquor traffic and exceedingly anxious 
about every source of moral contamination of youth; it was waging 
battle royal against certain questionable pictures enclosed in pack- 
ages of cigarettes and objectionable depictions of the feminine form 
on billboards; a world in which women’s dress was hideous, I grant 
you, but sufficient; and withal, a world which still held quite strictly 
to standards of reserve in feminine manners and in the artificialities 
of feminine garniture. 


We are asking, you will recall, why the problem of character 
training is more pressing than formerly. I have sketched thus briefly 
the America of thirty-five years ago in search of light on this ques- 
tion. How stands America today? Is there something in her appli- 
ances of civilization, in her present social attitude, in her art and 
literature, so different as to constitute an especial menace to youth- 
ful character and conduct? 


The temptation to adventure and the opportunities for trying 
out new experiences which result from modern mechanical appli- 
ances and inventions are without a parallel in the history of the 
world. America is be-telephoned, be-motorized, be-movied, be-radioed 
and be-jazzed to such a degree that only the calmest, most hardy and 
even hardened maturity can endure the resultant physical strain, 
not to speak of the unethical and unspiritual reactions; irritated and 
shattered nerves are seeking surcease of misery in new types of ex- 
citement keyed yet one pitch higher, or in drug stimulation; or, fail- 
ing in these, collapse in utter physical prostration and spiritual par- 
alysis. If maturity cannot and does not endure the physical strain 
of this mad whirligig, what of youth? -Something ails our youth, 
is the complaint, and why should not something ail them? The very 
setting of their lives is physically and mentally over-stimulating to 
the last degree. Is it to be wondered at that they exhibit a craze 
for new experiences and for excitement, that they evince little reserve 
in conduct or reticence in speech? Why, to be observed at all, they 
must ever strive to be more bizarre than their neighbors; to be 
heard, they must scream. Our very school buildings must be located 
not with a view to the securing of quiet and the conserving of the 
health and nerve poise of children and teachers; they must be placed 


4 


on the most traveled and, consequently, noisiest boulevards to adver- 
tise to traffic the material ambitions and prosperity of communities. 


Commercial enterprise in our day has not been slow for gainful 
ends to capitalize to the full the control over nature resulting from 
scientific discoveries. We would not delay civilization even for one 
decade, but all these inventions that contribute to our convenience 
and especially to our pleasure have created a new world full of peril 
to the young. The telephone makes contacts in the breath of a mo- 
ment; the automobile breaks home contacts with equal speed; the 
radio brings jazz into the home and the motion picture visualizes not 
vice, sensuality and crime, but—what is much more dangerous—vi- 
cious, sensual and criminal people in the very act of plying their evil 
ways. 


Literature is too narrowly occupied with the exploitation of the 
sex emotions and problems; ever thrums away on sex perversions and 
dissonances. The interpretation of those human emotions which have 
in all times nerved the heart and steadied the hand of men and women 
to deeds of courage and heroism, which have found expression in acts 
of justice and mercy, those emotions which are embodied in the no- 
blest works of art and the greatest institutions of human society; 
the interpretation of those emotions so that the young are thrilled 
with a vision of possible progress and of sure mastery of things not 
good and are impelled to undertake great things for human improve- 
ment—alas, literature seems to have lost her cunning and, instead 
of the live coals of clean-hearted human love and aspiration, she 
offers our youth the burnt-out embers of sensuality and passion. 


Literature and art in action, or drama and the dance, are no 
better; they are too monotonously artifical, too devoid of beauty and 
real meaning. In an attempt at so-called classic interpretations of 
creatures.of earth and air and sea, there is only one chance in a 
hundred that anything remotely approaching the calm dignity and 
spiritual serenity of the truly classic may result. As an example of 
such presentations a dancer appears in tights, bedecked otherwise 
only with the semblance of an enormous peacock’s tail which trails 
the stage, attached to the waist by an invisible string; a tuft of pea- 
cock feathers adorns the head. The dancer cavorts for a time, pre- 
sumably after peacock fashion, when there enters a stalwart youth 
with bow and arrow, likewise in tights. A well-aimed shaft from 
the arrow of the hunter brings low the dancer and prone in death 
she divests herself of tail and tuft, then springs to life and into the 
arms of her hunter-lover. There follows a duet of meaningless, 
graceless gymnastics indicative only of agility,—and this is classic 
art! 


Thousands of the very young witness these scenes every night 
in our great cities. Literature-in-action and the dance have flung to 
the winds all reserve. Too often they are crass, common, defiled. And 
the youth of today—how shall they know that all is not well when 
their elders do not even wince at the modern spectacle? Remember, 
we are still answering this question, if the problem of character 
training is more pressing than formerly, why is it so? 


Brief reference should be made to a few more social conditions 
which beset with difficulties the development of character and right 
conduct in youth. The eight hour law, a thing thoroughly humane 
and beneficent in itself, has brought to millions an amount of leisure 


5 


the world has never known since civilization started _on—its-long-jour- 
ney_upward- Coincident with leisure comes the wealth of the world 
dropped into the lap of America, which wealth under the spur of 
unheard of industrial expansion, is being more widely distributed 
than formerly. Leisure and wealth, what yoke-fellows for world pro- 
gress! But leisure and wealth for those who know not how to spend 


either wisely; what yoke-fellows for dissipation and degradation! 


What ails the young? What ails the adults of our time, I an- 
swer. The young are giving a better account of themselves than are 
the adults. 


But I must hasten. 


Disregard for law and contempt of the courts are making of this — 


land and of the courts a by-word, Probation has still to prove its 
right to stay. Legal technicalities, unscrupulous appeals of lawyers 
to unintelligent or prejudiced juries, interminable delays that wear 
out the patience of the public and even of judge and jury, connivings 
at escapes, pardons and paroles of criminals—all of these things 
are not hidden from youth. Why not take a chance, just one chance? 
At least there is promise of exciting adventure with little probability 
of being detected and, if detected, then there is probation. To the 
cool bloods who sit in this room, who recall the horror felt when per- 
chance one of their number went criminally wrong, it is difficult to 
realize the force of the temptation offered to the reckless, excitable 
youth of these days by probation, hung juries, lawyers who depict 
crime as a necessary consequence of tainted heredity and, therefore, 
not a thing to be disturbed about, and, if by chance the prison finally 
closes in on the culprit, then there is the parole and pardon to be 
counted on. To our everlasting shame, our beloved country is spoken 
of as the “Murderers’ Paradise.” 


Surely the problem of character training is pressing and not to 


be dallied with! 


And now, what of our responsibility as educators? First, to be 
straight ourselves, kindly, courageous, honest,.clean-minded and rey- 
erent>—Our students will not long remember much of what they learn 
in the way of information. They cannot escape, if they would, the 
memory and the impressions of a life above their own that uncon- 


sciously commanded their respect and invited imitation, if not positive 


competition. Someone has said, ‘‘The undevout astronomer is mad.” 
Someone may well say, “The teacher who himself needs to be taught 
the elements of clean, kindly and honorable living’ is a shameless im- 
postor.” 


How shall we help the growth of character and improve the con- 
duct of this generation of students? Shall we talk to the young people 
at stated times about the many problems of their lives? This is 
neither unsafe nor unwise if we are equal to the undertaking. Young 
people do not dislike preaching if they respect the preacher. They 
often crave a word of kindly, sincere advice. The natural discussion 
of ethical questions in small groups, with perfect freedom for ques- 
tions and answers and with perfect frankness, may be prolific of good 
results. At any rate, the problem is too pressing to trust any longer 
to chance opportunities, to some incident of the day or some point in 
a lesson for the favorable occasion in which to impress ethical lessons. 
A hundred things will always stand in the way of just a chance. We 


6 


_- 


must make such_instructiona—certainty—in the day’s program every 
day. 


In order not to leave this instruction wholly to chance oppor- 
tunity or to the possible ability of the individual teacher to discern 
the appropriate moment and material for such instruction, the course 
of study itself should point out the ethical objectives of each sub- 
ject, i. e., just how each subject may be made to contribute constantly 
to the development of right thinking and acting. Briefly to illus- 
trate; it should be shown in the course of study how the teaching of 
English may be and should be a daily exercise in sincere, exact and 
consequently honest expression, in fine discrimination between that 
which is ethically beautiful or ugly in the characters of the literature 
studied; how fair argument for a debating class may be made the 
agency of the finest ethical training. The teaching of English should 
be so done as to create a sense of obligation in each student to con- 
tribute as a good member of society to the conservation and per- 
petuation of choice English, and it will be found that this social and 
ethical obligation will prove a more powerful incentive to cheerful 
efforts to improve speech than will the desire on the part of the stu- 
dent to escape disapproval because of mistakes and failure. 


Just one more illustration of how a subject should afford daily 
training in character-and conduct... Take the shop lessons for this 
illustration. These should teach more than the use of tools, the laws 
of mechanics and their applications. They should teach fair deal- 
ing in that the same student should not alwavs anpropriate the best 
tools and the most desirably located bench; should teach lessons of 
cooperation at times when all hands must be willing to work together 
on a rush job; should teach every day and always that honest work 
alone should count, with no slighting of any job or attempt to conceal 
faulty execution. 


In this way the course of study may be very helpful by pointing 
out in rather explicit fashion those possible ethical outcomes inherent 
in each subject. 


In what other way may the schools help in this character train- 
ing? Student activities of every sort, from athletics to the cafeteria 
and from the friendly social event to the dramatic, debating and 
oratorical occasion, furnish the best of opportunities for ethical or, 
on the other hand, for unethical training, The ethics of the game 
have been so often discussed as to need no further rehearsing. To 
win honorably and lose graciously, to cooperate generously—in a 
word, to “play the game’”’—has made men out of selfish and whining 
cowards. The management of student finances furnishes an oppor- 
tunity for genuine moral triumph or defeat. For the student who 
trains himself to account honorably for the last penny, a moral 
' victory; for the student who tries to beat the game, a moral defeat; 
_for the teacher who supervises, an unparalleled opportunity to incul- 
cate lessons of unswerving honesty. 


When we have done all this, there still remains the one indispens- 
able necessity to right conduct, namely, “the inward approach to the 
control of life.” Inhibitions will not avail; “Thou shalt not” will not 
create right thoughts and noble deeds. Instruction is at best only 
suggestive and inspirational. Environment arranged to induce right 
attitudes and habits is most desirable, but a veritable Paradise of 
environment will not of itself restrain vicious propensities, whether 


7 


Ng NH 


inherited or acquired. The boy or girl who has not within himself 
the desire and will to do right will find or make an environment in 
spgbis with his own inner weaknesses and proclivities. 


~ Hspecially at this time, when spiritual values count for so little 


/ with multitudes of men and women and when there is. consequently 


great moral confusion, the schools should speak in no uncertain 
terms, — 


Unfortunately, in our own state the close interpretation of the law 
which rightly prohibits sectarian teaching results in undue caution 
on the part of teachers; some actually fear to refer to the sanctions 
of religion as standards by which to judge of what is right and 
wrong; they almost fear to mention the names of God and Christ 
in the classroom or within the school; they may teach Homer and 
the Greek tragedies which constituted the Greek Bible,—and for my 
own part, I wish they were taught more generally because of their 
calm, unescapable wisdom; they may mention with approbation 
Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet, but they feel constrained to ex- 
ercise caution when they approach the subject of Christianity, be- 
cause the Bible, the exponent of the Christian faith, is classed in. 
this state as sectarian literature. 


Whatever the prescriptions and interpretations of school law, the 
fact that confronts the schools is this; the issues of life are within 
the heart of man and that character alone is secure which is con- 
trolled from within under the guidance of ‘religious. sanctions, Most 
important of all is it that young people be taught that a thing should 
be done because it is right, right as judged by the spiritual wisdom 
of the ages and by the one all-comprehensive command of the Christ, 
“Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,—and thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself.” 





